A Finance Blog

Author: Sandy

Just like in November I did a horrible job of keeping track of my finances. I’ve decided to use a different system in 2020, called pen & paper. I received 3 pay checks and my net worth increased:

Liquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Cash & Checking

$3,800

$3,300

($500)

Emerg. Fund

$8,400

$8,400

+$0

Savings

$2,100

$1,300

($800)

Brokerage

$3,900

$3,900

+$0

HSA

$3,400

$3,700

+$300

Illiquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Home Eq

$34,000

$40,000

+$6,000

401K

$73,100

$75,800

+$2,700

Roth IRA

$33,500

$34,000

+$500

Debt

Start

End

Change

Loans

($3,100)

($3,100)

+$0

Net

$159,100

$167,300

$8,200

% Change

5.2%

The spending amounts below are incorrect and inflated. I bought gifts and the costs were (mostly) split with family members which isn’t accounted for. I have also done a poor job of keeping my sinking funds organized, so the fact that these purchases were actually budgeted for isn’t reflected either. For simplicity, let’s pretend it was a typical month and that none of the aforementioned snafus happened:

Category

Budget

Actual

Diff

(1)Bills & Utilities

$125

$102

$23 under

(2)Food

$300

$311

$11 over

(3)Medical

$-

$475

$-

(4)Misc

$300

$1,066

$766 over

(5)Sinking Funds

$-

$-

$-

Total (1+2+4+5)

$725

$1,479

$754 over

Total + Medical (3)

$1,954

$1,229 over

Based on incorrect assumptions, it was a terrible month in which I went well over budget. In actuality, the overspending was planned and saved for in sinking funds (which is why my net worth statement reflects an $800 decrease in savings). I’ll do better with keeping track of things in 2020. Apologies for a sloppy update for November & December 2019. Happy New Year!

My apologies for such a late November Net Worth Update. Life has been crazy. The last couple of months have been a blur of doctors appointments and testing. I was diagnosed with another autoimmune disease and started a new treatment that consists of giving myself injections…yuck. I also switched up my medical team for the upteenth time. Thankfully this time it looks like things are going smoothly. I seriously got more accomplished with my new team in 1 month than the 1.5 years wasted spent with my old team. Hopefully I won’t have to change things up for a while.

Unfortunately, I’m still at a weird place as far as my health is concerned. I need to get another treatment approved by my insurance company. I’ve been trying to get this treatment prescribed by a doctor for the longest. Thankfully (?) the treatment is the only one that might work for my newly diagnosed disease.

Anywho net worth wise there was nothing surprising.

Liquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Cash & Checking

$3,600

$3,800

+$200

Emerg. Fund

$8,700

$8,400

($300)

Savings

$1,800

$2,100

+$300

Brokerage

$3,600

$3,900

+$300

HSA

$3,000

$3,400

+$400

Illiquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Home Eq

$33,500

$34,000

+$500

401K

$69,700

$73,100

+$3,400

Roth IRA

$33,000

$33,500

+$500

Debt

Start

End

Change

Loans

($3,200)

($3,100)

+$100

Net

$153,700

$159,100

$5,400

% Change

3.6%

And because this update is so late, I don’t remember much of what actually happened finance wise. I’ll just share what I spent without much commentary:

Category

Budget

Actual

Diff

(1)Bills & Utilities

$200

$181

$19 under

(2)Food

$300

$388

$88 over

(3)Medical

$-

$176

$-

(4)Misc

$500

$585

$85 over

(5)Sinking Funds

$-

$-

$-

Total (1+2+4+5)

$1,000

$1,154

$154 over

Total + Medical (3)

$1,330

$330 over

Things I do remember about November: ordering Freshly so I didn’t have to cook (~$120) and buying way too many Christmas decorations, some of which I plan to return.

Most notable in October were the medical bills. They were sizable. Other than that, another big happening was that I shifted most of my savings to Capital One. Capital One released “performance savings accounts” this month that with competitive interest rates. The rates were enough for me to switch, since they also have a physical presence in DC, and don’t require that I share my password with mint. Now I don’t have to solely rely on my excel spreadsheet when tracking my expenditures.

My net worth increased by a little under $5,000 this month. My savings was the only asset category that saw a decline. Some of that was due to moving my money around into my checking, but a lot of that was due to it being the time of the year for periodic bills, which I do budget and save for each month.

Liquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Cash & Checking

$3,500

$3,600

+$100

Emerg. Fund

$8,400

$8,700

+$300

Savings

$3,100

$1,800

($1,300)

Brokerage

$3,500

$3,600

+$100

HSA

$2,800

$3,000

+$200

Illiquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Home Eq

$32,900

$33,500

+$600

401K

$65,800

$69,000

+$3,200

Roth IRA

$31,500

$33,200

+$1,700

Debt

Start

End

Change

Loans

($3,200)

($3,200)

+$0

Net

$148,300

$153,200

$4,900

% Change

3.3%

Spending

Category

Budget

Actual

Diff

(1)Bills & Utilities

$670

$650

$20 under

(2)Food

$300

$260

$40 under

(3)Medical

$-

$1,291

$-

(4)Misc

$500

$440

$60 under

(5)Sinking Funds

$-

$-

$-

Total (1+2+4+5)

$1,470

$1,350

$120 under

Total + Medical (3)

$2,641

$1,171 over

Bills & Utilities

On a typical month I only have two bills, not including my mortgage, which I budget $125 for. This month I also had a two (anticipated) periodic bills. I paid for these bills with sinking funds. I will do a better job next year of keeping track of my sinking funds, so that this type of spending makes a bit more sense.

Food

I was slightly under budget this month since I had a lot of food left from the previous month. I even ate out more than usual because I went on vacation.

Medical

This looks like a lot, but this was mostly anticipated and budgeted for in my sinking funds. There was only one bill that was a bit of a surprise, which was for $300.

Everything Else

I went on a shopping spree last month to see if it would curb my spending in this category. This is only a month after but it seems to have helped with my internet shopping.

Sinking Funds

I did take money out of my sinking funds, but since I haven’t been consistently tracking this, I left it blank.

This net worth update is over a month late. Things have been a little rough for me healthwise. Living with chronic illness is challenging by itself. In addition, I’ve had the added stress of fighting for treatments, dealing with difficult doctors, and putting far more work into my medical care than a patient should have to. Delays in treatment have resulted in worsening of my health, and missed windows of opportunity. It’s been an exhausting and stressful year in that regard.

Anywho, for September my net worth increased by almost $5,000. Since the month is long gone, I’m don’t remember how I managed to squirrel away $400 into my checking account or $500 in my emergency fund. I’m not complaining though. I did take out $300 from savings to pay for my shopping spree (more on that later). Other than that, the other account increases can be explained by my usual contributions to my retirement accounts coupled with market gains.

Liquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Cash & Checking

$3,100

$3,500

+$400

Emerg. Fund

$7,900

$8,400

+$500

Savings

$3,400

$3,100

($300)

Brokerage

$3,400

$3,500

+$100

HSA

$2,600

$2,800

+$200

Illiquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Home Eq

$32,400

$32,900

+$500

401K

$63,000

$65,800

+$2,800

Roth IRA

$30,900

$31,500

+$600

Debt

Start

End

Change

Loans

($3,300)

($3,200)

+$100

Net

$143,400

$148,300

$4,900

% Change

3.4%

Spending

One thing I am just now realizing is that I don’t do a very good job of keeping track of my sinking contributions in my spending section. It’s obviously too late this year, but I’ll be on it starting next.

So about that shopping spree…after a no-spend August, I decided to do just the opposite in September. I went on a shopping spree. My hopes was that this would help me cut back on time spent “window shopping”. I felt that the constant online-store browsing may have contributed to additional spending, albeit somewhat delayed. I bought everything on my wishlist (mostly kitchen stuff). You’ll see my October post soon, but it did seem to help a lot:

Category

Budget

Actual

Diff

(1)Bills & Utilities

$125

$100

$25 under

(2)Food

$300

$402

$102 over

(3)Medical

$-

$202

$-

(4)Misc

$500

$969

$405 over

(5)Sinking Funds

$-

($300)

$-

Total (1+2+4+5)

$925

$1,171

$246 over

Total + Medical (3)

$1,373

$448 over

I went $246 over budget, ignoring my medical expenses. I was $448 over budget with medical expenses included. I don’t skimp on medical care, which is why I look at both totals.

Bills & Utilities

My electricity usage and internet bill are fairly fixed, so there were no surprises there.

Food

I went over, which is something I rarely do when it comes to food. But I subscribed to a new meal-kit service every week which was especially worth it since I didn’t feel up to cooking.

Medical

Just the usual doctor appointments, copays, and travel expenses.

Misc

My shopping spree put me well over budget in this category. Thank goodness for sinking funds!

Sinking

I took $150 out of my home goods fund and $150 out of my gift fund to pay for going over in the miscellaneous category. I cash flowed the remaining overage, if I remember correctly.

Coming Soon…

October saw some sizable medical bills which I was able to cash flow. But it was tight month for that reason. Stay tuned!

August was supposed to be a no spend month, at least for non-essentials. That didn’t quite happen, but I did a decent job. I also had a couple of unanticipated essential purchases that were larger than I’d like. Thanks Murphy! First, let’s look into my net worth, which didn’t change much:

Liquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Cash & Checking

$3,300

$3,100

($200)

Emerg. Fund

$7,600

$7,900

+$300

Savings

$3,500

$3,400

($100)

Brokerage

$3,500

$3,400

($100)

HSA

$2,300

$2,600

+$300

Illiquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Home Eq

$31,700

$32,400

+$700

401K

$62,800

$63,000

+$200

Roth IRA

$30,900

$30,900

+$0

Debt

Start

End

Change

Loans

($3,300)

($3,300)

+$0

Net

$142,300

$143,400

$1,100

% Change

0.8%

And there you have it! I have nothing to show for my modest contributions to my retirement accounts. August was a rocky month for the stock market due to the ongoing trade war.

Spending

The no-spend stipulation was a challenge. And even though I did fairly well, my medical expenses offset an otherwise low-spend month. Keeping myself alive is costly. At least I didn’t have to dip into my sinking funds.

Category

Budget

Actual

Diff

(1)Bills & Utilities

$125

$100

$25 under

(2)Food

$300

$324

$24 over

(3)Medical

$-

$279

$-

(4)Misc

$500

$395

$105 under

(5)Sinking Funds

$-

$-

$-

Total (1+2+4+5)

$925

$819

$106 under

Total + Medical (3)

$1,098

$173 over

Bills & Utilities

I only paid two bills (electricity and internet) and they were low.

Food

I was all set to be within my $300 budget, but I met up with a visiting for brunch on the last day of the month. The cost of said brunch? The amount in which I went over budget: $24. It was worth it!

Medical

I spent nearly $300 keeping myself alive, and it’s paying off! This is the first time in over a year in which I can say my health has improved The improvement is slight and needs to be greater. I will most likely add another expensive medication to my treatment plan. But I’ll take it.

Misc

So this month was a no spend month for non-essentials in the “miscellaneous” category. It wasn’t easy, especially the first week or two. I did a fairly decent job of sticking to the plan, with the exception of three non-essential purchases that totaled ~$100. Two purchases I was intending to make in September, but the items had huge (>40%) mark downs on Amazon. I use camelcamelcamel to follow items on my wishlist and snatch up good deals.

Notable essential purchases include:

A new (to me) cellphone- $90 (unanticipated)

New luggage – $70 (unanticipated)

Transportation Costs – $80 (anticipated)

Conclusions & Next Month

The no-spend made a huge difference this month. I know I would have gone way over budget otherwise. I wish I could make September another no-spend month, but I don’t have it in me. I’ll probably try again in January. Until then, I’ll work on figuring out a better way to stay within budget.

Any month I don’t have to touch my slush fund is a good month. In July I did not touch my slush fund.

Net Worth

This was a three paycheck month and it shows. My net worth sits at a comfortable $142k, up $8k (6.0%) from last month. All my asset categories increased or stayed the same:

Liquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Cash & Checking

$2,500

$3,300

+$800

Emerg. Fund

$7,600

$7,600

+$0

Savings

$3,200

$3,500

+$300

Brokerage

$1,900

$3,500

+$1,600

HSA

$2,000

$2,300

+$300

Illiquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Bonds

$0

$0

$0

Home Eq

$31,200

$31,700

+$500

401K

$58,900

$62,800

+$3,900

Roth IRA

$30,300

$30,900

+$600

Debt

Start

End

Change

Loans

($3,400)

($3,300)

+$100

Net

$134,200

$142,300

$8,100

% Change

6.0%

I did a projection of my net worth, and barring a stock market downturn, my net worth should reach $200k sometime next year. It’s crazy to think that my second $100k may come one year after my first. Admittedly, a lot of the increase will come from my condo’s appreciation. The real estate market in the DC metro is unbelievable.

Spending

I went $60 over budget this month due to pesky medical expenses:

Category

Budget

Actual

Diff

(1)Bills & Utilities

$310

$266

$44 under

(2)Food

$300

$268

$32 under

(3)Medical

$-

$176

$-

(4)Misc

$500

$460

$40 under

(5)Sinking Funds

$-

$-

$-

Total (1+2+4+5)

$1,110

$994

$116 under

Total + Medical (3)

$1170

$60 over

Not shown is the extra $125 I earned. Broken down my spending went towards

(1) Bills & Utilities

The budget and spending for my bills and utilities is higher than usual because of the annual renewal of my cellphone service. I budgeted to spend $200 but I actually spent $165 on my cellphone plan.

(2)Food

I am surprised this is so low. I had hellofresh delivered twice (albeit at a discounted price); I ate out quite a bit; and I ordered Amazon meal kits. I was away for an entire week on a work trip which I’m sure lowered my spending

(3)Medical

My medical costs continue to be higher than I’d like. Boo.

(4)Misc

I had some friends come visit and stay with me earlier in the month, and hanging and eating out with them cost quite a bit of dinero. It was well worth it.

Next Month & Conclusions

In disappointing news, I learned that one of my specialists will cost me $250 each and every appointment. This specialist is the only one in the country, so there is no cheaper alternative. Hopefully with improved health I won’t have to see this or any other doctor frequently come 2020.

It’s now a few days into a new month and I’m trying a no-spend challenge. If all goes well, I won’t be placing any unnecessary online orders in August. It’s not easy, but so far I’ve limited myself to groceries and one makeup brush.

This post is way late. My personal life has been crazy mostly because of my health. I still haven’t been feeling too great. The good news is that I have a solid treatment plan and I’m confident that I’ll be feeling better soon.

In my financial life June went well. I did go over budget, but this was more than offset by extra income. It was a pretty typical month.

Next Month & Conclusions

All in all May was another uneventful month…financially. There aren’t too many surprises anymore. It helps that I’m single, carless and have no kids. The only thing that keeps me on my toes are those pesky medical bills as I’m still struggling with my chronic illness.

In November I received a working diagnosis for my health woes and I was prescribed a targeted treatment to regulate my immune system. This month my doctors concluded my response has been inadequate and I need to try something else. While I do not have cancer, next month I’ll be starting a cancer treatment to partially wipe out my immune system. I’m much more hopeful about this one. But this whole experience has been exasperating.

In lighter news, my lazy budget tracking method went smoother this month. The way it works is that I now use my credit card balance to figure out my spending-to-date. I still try to keep the balance under a budgeted amount (currently $800). Last month I found it difficult to track my cash spending with this method. I’ve since figured it out.

Net Worth

My net worth! The markets didn’t perform well so my net worth declined by nearly 1 percent. Otherwise, things went well and I even managed to save $500 outside of my investment accounts.

Liquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Cash & Checking

$1,900

$2,100

+$200

Emerg. Fund

$7,500

$7,500

+$0

Savings

$2,900

$3,200

+$300

Brokerage

$1,800

$1,800

+$0

HSA

$1,600

$1,900

+$300

Illiquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Bonds

$0

$0

$0

Home Eq

$30,100

$30,600

+$500

401K

$54,900

$53,600

($1,300)

Roth IRA

$29,200

$28,200

($1,000)

Debt

Start

End

Change

Loans

($3,400)

($3,400)

+$0

Net

$126,500

$125,500

($1,000)

% Change

-0.8%

Spending

My pay raise came through this month. More money is nice. Now that I know my take home pay for the remainder of the year, I’ve finally settled on yet another monthly budget:

$125 – Bills & Utilities

$350 – Sinking Funds & Savings

$800 – Everything Else

I know I’ve changed my budget many times already this year, hopefully this is the last time.

Category

Budget

Actual

Diff

(1)Bills & Utilities

$125

$105

$20 under

(2)Food

$300

$290

$10 under

(3)Medical

$-

$150

$-

(4)Misc

$500

$245

$255 under

(5)SF*

$65

$65

$-

Total (1+2+4+5)

$990

$705

$285 under

Total + Medical (3)

$855

$135 under

*SF – Sinking Fund Purchases

(1) Bills & Utilities

Last month I switched cell phone carriers and now my internet and electricity are my only recurring monthly utility bills. I budget $40 for my internet and $85 for electricity, and my electricity bill was low.

(2) Food

I don’t usually have a problem with keeping my food spending down, and this month was no exception. I buy my groceries online and I try to limit these purchases to $35 once a week.

(3) Medical

In a perfect world this would be $0. It wasn’t. Someday.

(4) Misc

This is usually the spending category that gets me. Kitchen gadgets, clothing, and home decor all add up. I’ve managed to talk myself out of several of such purchases and it really paid off. I do have a running wishlist of things I plan to purchase. I can’t purchase everything I want in one sitting without going way over budget.

(5) Sinking Funds

I used $65 for a mother’s day gift.

Next Month & Conclusions

June shouldn’t be atypical at least not financially. There is Father’s day though. If the infusions work, my doctor said I should be feeling better by July.

This month I worked on perfecting my lazy man’s budgeting system wherein I no longer meticulously track my day to day expenditures. The system I’ve come up with works by glancing at my credit card balances and keeping the balances under the amount I budget towards discretionary variable expenses (historically $600).

Things started off a bit rocky but got easier towards the end. At first my (non-discretionary) medical expenses, purchases with sinking funds, and cash expenditures all made tracking the discretionary expenses difficult. This resulted in instances where I didn’t know how much I had left to spend. Additionally, April also was one of those months – a bit atypical. That happens sometimes. Either way, I’ve figured things out.

Net Worth

Net worth wise, you wouldn’t know that April was such a struggle. My net worth increased by 5 percent. The only category that saw a loss was my “Savings”. Apparently the markets did really well.

Liquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Cash & Checking

$1,800

$1,875

+$75

Emerg. Fund

$7,225

$7,500

+$275

Savings

$3,250

$2,925

($325)

Brokerage

$1,600

$1,775

+$175

HSA

$1,300

$1,600

+$300

Illiquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Bonds

$0

$0

$0

Home Eq

$29,500

$30,075

+$575

401K

$51,225

$54,875

+$3,650

Roth IRA

$27,900

$29,250

+$1,350

Debt

Start

End

Change

Loans

($3,450)

($3,425)

+$25

Net

$120,350

$126,575

+$6,100

% Change

+5.1%

Spending

I basically went over my budget by a lot. I had extra expenses and splurges. Some of these purchases were planned, others were not. Thank goodness for sinking funds that were able to absorb the costs. So where did my money go?

Category

Budget

Actual

Diff

(1)Bills & Utilities

$150

$155

$5 over

(2)Food

$300

$372

$72 over

(3)Medical

$-

$230

$-

(4)Misc

$300

$553

$253 over

(5)SF

($560)

$-

Total (1+2+4)

$750

$1,080

$330 over

Total + Medical

$1,310

$560 over

(1) Bills & Utilities

I was hoping to be under budget this month due to having 3 months of free cell phone service with Republic Wireless. But Republic Wireless was terrible, and I wouldn’t recommend it, even for free. I only lasted a month and a half. I’m now using Mint Mobile which is cheaper and more reliable. The cost is $15/month for Unlimited talk + Unlimited Text + 3GB of 4G LTE high speed data + Unlimited 2G data. The “catch” is that you have to pay multiple months in advance. So it cost me $45 for the first 3 months. For $20/month and $25/month you get 8GB and 12GB of LTE, respectively. This means in July I’ll be forking over $180 for 12 months of cell service. Though I should already have $30 in referral credits. [Referral link for $15 off]. So far I’m really pleased.

(2) Food

I accidentally purchased 3 meal kits instead of 2 so that took me over by exactly the price of the third meal kit.

(3) Medical

As usual this is higher than the $0 I’d like. I have chronic health conditions and my health care usage is above average for my age. Thankfully I have excellent health insurance. I am a bit concerned about my future medical costs due to a new medication I’ll be starting soon. I’m not sure how much it will cost me.

(4) Misc

See what had happened was:

Wardrobe Expansion – I’m still expanding my wardrobe and getting rid of things I don’t wear! I saved a lot by buying second hand. As winter approaches I need to work on my sweater collection. Then I should be good for a couple years. Cost: $150

Gifts – There were birthdays this month! Cost: $150

Plants – I bought houseplants and their necessary upkeep supplies. They are struggling though, and in shock from being shipped. If they die I hope it’s within 30 days of purchase so I can get a refund. I’m hoping they aid in clearing out the new construction smell from my condo. Cost: $150

Bills: A biannual payment came up for a meetup group that I run. Since this is an optional bill I put it in the miscellaneous category.Cost: $95

(5) Sinking Fund

I had to withdraw from my sinking funds due to my overages. That’s what they’re there for !

Conclusions & May

In conclusion, I think I’ve perfected my budgeting system, and I’m excited to try again in May. Also next month I’m getting a pay raise!

My apologies whoever reads this, I’m late on the March update! Now that it’s halfway through April I barely remember what happened. Let’s see what my spreadsheet says.

Net Worth

Apparently my net worth increased by 3.6 percent, so that’s good. Most of my net worth increase came from the market performance. But I did manage to save $400 somehow, I must have had extra income.

Liquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Cash & Checking

$2,025

$1,800

($225)

Emerg. Fund

$6,000

$7,225

+$1,225

Savings

$2,600

$3,250

+$650

Brokerage

$1,600

$1,600

+$0

HSA

$1,025

$1,300

+$275

Illiquid Assets

Start

End

Change

Bonds

$1,225

$0

($1,225)

Home Eq

$28,950

$29,500

+$550

401K

$49,025

$51,225

+$2,200

Roth IRA

$27,225

$27,900

+$675

Debt

Start

End

Change

Loans

($3,550)

($3,450)

+$100

Net

$116,125

$120,350

+$4,225

% Change

+3.6%

Spending

Each month, after my housing costs and retirement plan contributions I have $1,100 to spend on all the other things. My goal historically has been to “budget” $750/month for these expenditures, meaning I’d have the potential to save $350. This month I went over that “budget” and spent $1,040, of which, $185 were medical expenses.

I say “budget” loosely as I’m not really aiming to save right now, but I do want to maintain a positive cash flow.

Category

Budget

Actual

Diff

(1)Bills & Utilities

$150

$144

($6)

(2)Food

$300

$270

($30)

(3)Medical

$-

$185

$-

(4)Misc

$300

$442

$142

(5)SF

$-

$-

$-

Total (1+2+4+5)

$750

$856

$106 over

(1) Bills & Utilities

I was $6 under budget

(2) Food

And I was somehow under budget on food, again.

(3) Medical

I am cash flowing my medical expenses this year, maybe. I have chronic health conditions that make my medical expenses quite high. I am hoping that at some point things stabilize and things aren’t so costly.

(4) Misc

I was slightly over “budget” in this category mostly because I purchased clothes. I actually have a sinking fund for clothing, but I decided to cash flow it.

(5) Sinking Fund

I didn’t touch any of my sinking funds this month despite having funds set aside for medical & clothing expenses. I cash flow all my expenses when I can.

Conclusions & April

Overall I’m happy with how things are going. I earn enough to max out my HSA, Roth IRA and 401K. But after all my additional expenses I don’t have much left over to blow or save. My medical expenses, which have totaled ~$600 so far this year, are a big contributor to my inability to save on a monthly basis. Thankfully three paycheck months make up for lost ground. I just wish I didn’t feel so strapped each month. And in good news, next month I am getting another pay raise which will make for an extra $150/month post taxes. That will certainly help!

It’s halfway through April so I know how it’s going already. Not surprisingly I have quite a bit in terms of medical expenses. I’m also trying this new thing where I don’t meticulously track my budget. Instead I just glance at my credit card totals and am trying to keep them collectively under $600. I like the ease of this system, but I’m totally going to be over my historical $600 budget due to some large purchases of furniture.